Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Today is the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. Glenn Reynolds has his remembrance here, including a link to his original coverage of the events.

Esquire magazine has an article on the falling man, whose picture has been downplayed and hidden (to the extent that one can hide something on the internet). It’s not the only one. I remember seeing video of Palestinians dancing in the street and handing candy out to children in celebration. You can’t find that anymore. You can find denials that it ever happened, though.

It’s also the 4th anniversary of the attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. All the more tragic because it was , and I doubt that we’ll ever have a better explanation for the U. S. government’s response than, “feckless Democrats.”

I didn’t vote in every category – I won’t vote if I’m not conversant with the nominees. I feel that it’s a matter of integrity not to vote for or against things I haven’t read or watched. Given that half or more of the votes in categories dominated by Puppy nominees were for “no award” and a number of people stated that they were going to vote that way without reading any of the nominated works, it’s obvious that many people don’t believe the same way. I’d be very interested in seeing how many of the “no award” votes had only no award votes, and how many of them cast votes ranking nominees in one or more categories.

I watched the first two hours of the livestream, although I missed the opening skit. I must say, I was disappointed but not surprised by the sniggering about the asterisk being the official emblem of this year’s Hugo awards, David Gerrold’s little “happy dance” when the audience cheered that “no award” won in the Best Related Work category, and winner speeches that included statements that “Black lives matter” and “I’d like to thank The Patriarchy.” I went to bed around that time, but Mr. Gerrold apparently said at some later time in the ceremony that while cheering “no award” was acceptable, booing it was not.

As I said, I was disappointed but not surprised – this is the sort of thing I’ve come to expect from organized fandom. It’s a major reason why I’ve not been active in local fandom for a number of years, although whether I gafiated or fafiated depends on your point of view. I’ve talked about this before, but apparently only in comments on other websites. There is a widespread presumption in fandom that everyone in fandom is at least liberal, if not further to the left, and the people who aren’t are stupid, evil, or worse, and are certainly not due any consideration or politeness.

It leads to an environment in which people feel comfortable making statements denigrating conservatives, conservative ideas, and Republicans. The “logic” seems to be, “These are my views, and I’m smart, therefore I’m right, and anyone who disagrees is both stupid and incorrect, but there’s nobody here like that, right?” I don’t like arguing, so I prefer not to go places where I get stressed, but it’s been pointed out that abdicating the field in that way is the sort of thing that helped allow the SJW takeover of the field.

Getting back to the Hugos, it also leads to the way the Puppy nominees and backers have been characterized by the gatekeepers. I’ve never met Larry Correia and Vox Day, but I have met Sarah Hoyt, and the widespread characterization of them and the Puppy nominees as being “straight white males writing about straight white males” can only be considered accurate if you say that the anti-Puppy forces are allowed to assign sex and ethnicity regardless of biology or consistency.

I’ll admit that, while I really liked and was impressed by many of the Puppy nominees, I don’t consider all of them to have been Hugo-worthy. However, even the worst of them was better than some of last year’s highly-touted nominees (“If You Were Attacked by Cardboard Stereotypes, My Love,” for example).

I’ve looked at a few of the Hugo roundup and response posts, and over at Vox Day’s site, some commenters are blaming the Puppy voters for voting “no award,” which is ridiculous to those who’ve been following what he and others have said. Basically, this year they played it straight; next year they’ll vote to burn down the awards, since the people afraid of the awards going to the wrong people have led the way. As Vox Day pointed out, the official announcement didn’t even mention the categories in which no award was made.

There were five categories in which no award was made this year. That matches the number of “no awards” in all of the prior history of the Hugos. Personally, I don’t believe that the nominees this year were that incredibly and historically bad. The gatekeepers have shown the extent to which they’re willing to go to keep control of the awards. It will be interesting, and likely disheartening, to see what happens next.

Jonathan Coulton, a singer-songwriter whose work I enjoy, recently received a letter from the Democratic Party of New York, which stated that they knew he was registered to vote, and that although his actual vote was protected by law, whether or not he voted was a matter of public record. They noted that if he didn’t vote, they’d be interested in knowing why not.

He posted a picture of the letter on his Twitter feed, saying, “I think the Democrats just threatened me.” A number of sites, such as this one, agreed that it was a threat. He’s not too thrilled with that, actually, because he usually votes Democratic, and meant the comment sarcastically.

I received one in the mail today. It’s not a letter, though – it’s a glossy flyer paid for by the campaign for my local Democratic state senate candidate, Rachel Zenzinger. One side states in large type that it is “2014 General Election Information,” and, “Who Votes Is Public Information.” The other side has large type at the top that says, “Records indicate you voted in the past.” At the bottom, in bold, it says, “We may contact you after the election to hear about your voting experience.” In between, it makes the claim that Ms. Zenzinger, whose name never came to my attention before canvassers came through my neighborhood last month, has a record of standing up for all that is right and good.

Ms. Zenzinger was appointed to her post when Evie Hudak saw the writing on the wall and resigned, rather than go through a recall election. This allowed the Democrats to keep the seat, which an election would likely have cost them, so this is Ms. Zenzinger’s first election for the seat. The flyer is kind of a waste, though. Among other widely-unpopular actions the Colorado Democrats, who control the state government, have taken recently, they made this a mail-ballot-only election, which Republicans have called an invitation to vote fraud. Oh, I imagine that there are some people who have yet to fill out their ballots, and will drop them off tomorrow, but I suspect that the vast majority of voters have, like me, already submitted their ballots. I’m just wondering how many people will take advantage of the same legislation that made this a vote-by-mail election to walk into a polling station tomorrow, register to vote, and receive and fill in a ballot.

UPDATE: Apparently, my WordPress installation had (maybe has) the wrong time – it hadn’t been adjusted back to MST.

I’ve seen that a number of times over the past several years. It’s obvious to me that it’s now landing on the US. What with the IRS scandal (still scandalously being ignored by the media), the lies about Benghazi, overreach in several areas by the EPA, the federal bunnyinspectors, and a whole host of other things just in government, it’s obvious that we’re no longer a nation of laws, we’re a nation of oligarchs and bureaucrats.

Then you get into the media, which drives the popular culture, and it’s equally obvious. I seldom go to the movies or watch popular television shows anymore, because the viewpoint is blatant and almost omnipresent.

Because of the leftist orientation of Hollywood and the news media, and because of the leftist indoctrination being performed in the public schools and the colleges, our rights as citizens are being abrogated at all levels.

Freedom of speech is also gone. What with free speech zones on college campuses, free speech zones being set up by the BLM, federal plans to monitor newsrooms, and speakers of conservative and pro-Israel stances being prevented from speaking publicly, it’s obvious that free speech is for the left, and nobody else.

Free exercise of religion? Please. You’re not allowed to disapprove of gay marriage, except perhaps if you’re Muslim. Christian holidays are downplayed, because Muslims and atheists don’t approve of them.

The Second Amendment?

Besides all the other efforts to restrict availability of weapons, we now have a new argument: since Leland Yee was running guns and involved with Islamic terrorists, we have to pass the legislation he supports to restrict citizens’ access to weapons. Don’t know who Leland Yee is? See the mention of media bias, above.

Members of this administration seem to use it a lot, don’t they? When they’re not outright lying under oath, that is.

We’re starting to see some efforts by the states to assert their rights under the Tenth Amendment, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope.

The First Amendment issues also go into the Eich situation at Mozilla. California requires that anyone who donates $100 or more to a cause has that donation associated with them in a public database. Mr. Eich supported Proposition 8 in California some years ago, which stated that marriage was considered to be between a man and a woman. He’s now been forced out of his job by what some are referring to as the “Gaystapo.” That’s enforcement of an approved position in favor of homosexual marriages; it’s no longer permitted to hold a contrary opinion.

I can remember when the position of most homosexuals (at least, the vocal ones) was, “Marriage? That’s for breeders.” That’s gone down the memory hole, and don’t dare think that way, or you may lose your job, too.

Evie Hudak is my representative in the Colorado Senate. I’ve voted against her in every election since I moved here. Her campaign literature always seems to be depend on scare tactics and misleading information about her opponents. Unfortunately, it’s worked for her.

There was an attempt to recall her earlier, but it didn’t succeed. Recalls against two other legislators were successful. There’s now a second recall effort against her. I signed the petition both times, and talked with one of the signature gatherers this time around. He said that they’d learned from the successful recall efforts, in that they were gathering phone numbers or emails as well as name and address this time, and they had liquid-proof cover sheets on the clipboards this time. Apparently, without contact information the first time, they were unable to verify a large number of signatures challenged by Hudak’s people, and the cover sheets were to prevent people from walking up and “accidentally” spilling coffee on the signature sheets.

Tonight, I came home to find a flyer hung on my doorknob. It doesn’t mention Hudak by name, but it’s the sort of scare tactic I associate with her.

Here’s the text of the flyer (any commentary I have will be in italics):

PUBLIC AWARENESS ALERT

Signature gatherers who have not gone through background checks could be in our neighborhood – as soon as tomorrow – asking us to sign a recall petition.

DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION

The petition gatherer at your door, asking for your personal information, could have a criminal record.

And, if you sign the petition, your signature and personal information will become public record, available for anyone to access. Because they have to be filed with the Colorado Secretary of State. If you own real property, your personal information is already public record.

Don’t Give This Company Your Personal Information. Don’t Sign The Recall Petition. I like how they characterize the recall effort as a company. Makes it sound like an evil big business. They do this more than once.

TO REPORT ANY CASES OF FRAUD, PLEASE CALL 720-588-8496 Here, they’re characterizing signing a recall petition as being defrauded.

(End of that side of the flyer)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY BEHIND THE RECALL PETITIONS

* History of hiring petition gatherers with a criminal history, including sexual assault on a child

* History of fraud and forgery allegations in other petition gathering efforts in Colorado Anyone can allege fraud and forgery, and I understand it’s not unheard-of for people to try to disqualify signatures on petitions by challenging them in this manner.

* History of paying people who leave the state after they have your personal information Democrats have been known to use hired petition gatherers, also. If they’re from out of state, as they sometimes are, of course they’ll leave once the petition drive is over. This makes it sound as though the petition gatherers themselves will be taking your personal information with them when they leave.

Don’t Give This Company Your Personal Information. Don’t Sign The Recall Petition. Again, implying that the recall effort is a “company” that will retain your personal information.

TO REPORT ANY CASES OF FRAUD, PLEASE CALL 720-588-8496

That’s most of the text from the flyer. The rest is the “fine print”: on the first side, it says “Paid for by the Democracy Defense Fund,” which has no web presence I can find, and when I search on the phone number, I’m told that it is not an assigned number. The Denver Post (in the article I linked earlier) says that there was no answer when they called them. On the second side, it has five media references (newpaper name and date or radio station call sign and date). There are no article titles or links to websites on the flyer.

I’ve searched the Denver Post’s archives, and found either a political article or a letter to the editor on three of the four dates, but only one actual article appeared to reference a recall effort, and I’m not willing to sign up for a Denver Post account and pay $2.95 per article to examine these articles, so I don’t know what they’re referencing in those articles.

I hope the recall effort gets enough signatures to go through, but tactics like this work, and they’re what I expect from Evie Hudak.

Once again, it is the anniversary of the attacks on the US at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. This is also the first anniversary of the death in Benghazi of our ambassador and several other people abandoned by the Obama administration. There were at least two further attacks in Benghazi today.

I don’t know what to say at this point that hasn’t been covered already (and better) by others. Our response to 9/11/2001 started as an example of Category Error. Rather than going after the nation and/or culture which produced the attackers, we declared war on their chosen tactic.

Then again, as a well-known “American patriot” once asked, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” I know what difference it makes to me. It’s confirmation that the administration was lying about Benghazi from the start. What difference does it make to you?

I voted this morning – at least, I tried to. I’ve been a registered voter here in Colorado since I moved here in the early 1980s. I’ve been registered at my current address for the last few election cycles. I received my voter registration card in the mail some time ago. I always vote in person, because I’m leery of having my ballot mailed to me. I was not anticipating problems.

I was eighth in line when the polls opened this morning, but the line moved slowly. Where I vote, they have printed lists (small books, really) showing everyone who is registered and assigned to that polling station. Each name indicates whether the person already voted by mail, already voted in early voting, or was eligible to vote in person today. It turned out that the first twelve of us in line were not even listed in the books or the supplemental lists. I’m hoping that this was just a glitch, but I’m not even going to be able to verify whether my provisional ballot was counted for two and a half weeks.

I’ve been registered as an independent most of my voting life. I was registered Republican in the early 1970s for a few years, then independent for several years, Democrat during the 1992 election season, and independent (referred to as “unaffiliated” in Colorado) since. I’m hoping that this is just a glitch, but I fear that it may not be. I was getting two or three political calls a day for a while, mostly from Obama for America, but they pretty much stopped after I told them that there was no way I would vote to reelect him. I’m hoping that there’s no connection.

My polling station isn’t the only one where things have been occurring. During early voting, there were enough cases of voting machines registering Obama votes when the Romney button was pressed (“calibration problems,” everyone was told) that the Republicans wrote to the AGs of six states asking that the issue be looked into. You aren’t allowed to campaign near a polling station, but some people don’t believe that. Some people don’t believe that. Some people don’t believe that. Some people don’t believe that. Some people don’t believe that. Some people don’t believe that.

Update: Local TV news is saying that what I experienced is apparently a pretty widespread problem caused by election officials “misreading” the lists. They’ve asked people to contact their reporter via Twitter or Facebook, neither of which I use.

This one is missing a verse, but you can’t beat the classic 60s “look.” Note also that this is apparently before Johnny became “The Man in Black.” I must admit, I love the peasant shirt, but I’m not too keen on the frock vest.

Hell, no! I’m not going to forget. I was at work when I heard the news. I thought the first plane hitting was a tragic accident, but when the second plane hit, I knew that it was an act of war, and told my coworkers that. I went home, and brought back a small television, which we kept returning to the rest of the day.

I remember seeing the footage of Muslims (Palestinians, IIRC) passing out candy to children and dancing in the streets in celebration. I remember not being able to contact my father, who, although retired, still went to the Pentagon daily, until four days later.